‘Mad Men’ Debut Jumps With Live+3-Day Viewing

The return of Mad Men for the first part of Season 7 on Sunday clocked 3.7 million viewers when Live+3 viewing stats are added in – a 62% jump from the previously reported 2.3 million for Live+Same Day. That’s good news for AMC, given those Live+SD stats had been the acclaimed drama series’ lowest season premiere since 2008’s Season 2.

Mad Men is one of TV’s most DVR’d series. In key demos, for instance – 18-49 and 25-54 – Sunday’s premiere telecast of the seventh-season starter bagged even bigger gains when delayed viewing through three days was factored in. In 18-49, the tally popped to 1.8 million viewers, up 74% from the initially reported ratings. In 25-54, Mad Men climbed 73%, to 1.9 million. The period drama’s return is still, however, down compared to its Season 6 opener on April 7, 2013, which snagged 4.5 million overall viewers, 2.1 million 18-49 viewers and 2.3 million in the 25-54 age bracket in Live+3 viewing. That two-hour debut was the show’s second-most-watched episode ever. It closely followed the Season 5 debut of March 25, 2012, which was seen by an audience of 3.5 million.

With the additional viewing, the Season 7 premiere cut its debut-to-debut viewership drop in half. AMC expects that gap to continue to shrink significantly over the weekend — peak time-shifting time. At any rate, Mad Men’s audience, while smaller, continues to be one of the most upscale among ad-supported cable and broadcast TV, with 54% of the premiere audience among adults 25-54 from households with annual income of $100,000+.

I thought it was a fine season debut. I think that part of the backlash against the opener is that there wasn’t as big as jump in time as usually happens between seasons. Because it felt like not much had changed from last season, some felt it was “ho-hum.”

BD • on Apr 18, 2014 1:45 pm

So. still less than half the number of viewers of Talking Dead.

Ryan in L.A. • on Apr 18, 2014 1:45 pm

Network execs and deadline bloggers put everything on ratings but “Mad Men” is a brilliant story that doesn’t need to manufacture high stakes cliffhanger type scenarios to grab an audience. As a viewer I don’t want to be pandered to and I’m glad Matthew Weiner & Co. are writing the show they want to make.